


A Rough Trade

by Ewok_Poet



Series: Anjie Mencuri stories [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars - Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars - The Force Awakens, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Endor, Gen, Secret Messages, Vader's helmet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-08 15:11:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5502386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ewok_Poet/pseuds/Ewok_Poet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just like the map that BB-8 had the last puzzle piece of, a story of a young man's fall to the dark side can only be told as a puzzle, pieced together by multiple people, none of whom have all the details, all of whom approach it from a different point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Characters and tags will be added as the story progresses. POV may change. At this point, Luke is recording his story into R2-D2, before going to Ahch-To for exile.

**_Prologue_ **

<<location data: Jedi training grounds >>  
<<weather data: downpour>>  
<<holovideo message id: 1138>>  
  
_You are reckless! You are reckless! You are reckless! You are reckless! You are reckless! You are reckless! You are reckless! You are reckless! You are reckless!_  
  
At this point, I cannot determine if the ghost that is Master Yoda is really speaking to me, or if I am no longer able to silence my guilty conscience. And guilt, it's an emotion that should not plague a Jedi. Not in hard times like these. Not when every single word he ever said to me and every single word he may have said to my father has ultimately lead to my doing what he had once done - going into exile. Does he want me to change my decision? Does he think I’m approaching things in black and white, as if I were a Sith? Is this him, at all?  
  
_You are reckless!_  
  
Why, Yoda? And why Yoda? And out of all wise things he said to me, why does the one that was, ultimately, wrong, stick out? Why everything else seems garbled, twisted around, and spoken in a language I do not even understand. Could it be that no other soul who ever lived, that nobody else out of the three beings who became one with the living Force can reach through to me? Could it be that this place is so strong with the dark side?  
  
Where is old Ben, when I need him most? He guided me through all the decisions I have made during the worst and the darkest of times and now, he is not speaking to me. Whoever had taught him to have the patience he had for a wide-eyed boy from the place where the maker had said goodnight to the world must have been somebody reckless himself, in some way.  
  
Where is my father? The one who sometime comes to visit me in the shape of a young man I never knew, with the face I have never seen, as the one dying in my arms was disfigured and helpless. The one who redeemed himself in the end? The alleged Chosen One?  
  
My thoughts are betraying me and my feelings are failing me. I understand that this place is now the closest to hell as one can be, so many slaughtered, innocent souls lying motionless in the rain. Is somebody trying to make me think something I otherwise would not? Did I underestimate his abilities, just like his father once thought of mine as a delusion, at the worst point possible...right now?  
  
Was training my nephew ultimately a mistake, no worse than master Yoda claimed would have been Ben training my father?  
  
Was I ignoring the signs from the very beginning because he was my nephew? Was this the reason the Jedi of the old Republic used to be so strict?  
  
Why did I not learn anything from the fragments of all those stories about my father? I traced every single thing, every single story, everything that would help Leia and I learn more about who we were and ultimately, it was all stolen from me and reconnected in the form of a sinister cube puzzle that was nowhere like the one the two of us put together?  
  
So many things I cannot find the answers for, but I know the answer to the last one.  
  
It’s easy – because nobody ever stopped me or doubted me! That is one of the reasons I wonder why young Ben – whom I will never call by any other name - ended up obsessed with somebody who was always stopped and doubted, regardless of how much love we gave him.  
  
His story was never similar to my father's. Anakin Skywalker - whom I will never call by any other name, as he is ultimately the one he was born as, the one he died as - grew up in poverty. Slavery. In the shadows, on a remote world where shadows were a rare sight to behold, yet everybody was a shadow quietly existing under the rule of a tyrant.  
  
Ben, he had everything he could possibly wish for. He grew up as the son of two heroes of the Galactic Civil War. He was free to do whatever he pleased. He wanted to become a Jedi himself.  
  
Perhaps that was a problem, too?  
  
Sometimes, I hear a woman’s voice, but I cannot see her. She is in great pain and she keeps on repeating “I know there’s good in him.” I cannot fully recognise her face, though it seems like I have always known her. I have an idea of who this might be and whose memory is being shown to me, but it’s dangerous, incredibly dangerous, to take things out of context. Therefore, this mere assumption will not be a part of my message.  
  
_You are reckless!_  
  
Be quiet, my master. I never begged for anything, I never even begged a monster of a man, the emptiest of the empty souls to spare my life; but now I am questioning myself so much, I feel another wrestling session with the dark side coming along and this is not the way of the Jedi. Perhaps you would have said that I should go somewhere strong in the dark side, like you did and feed and clothe my demons, instead of escaping them. Know your enemy. But what if your enemy is...  


<<a chirp of warning in droid binary language>>  
<<a sigh and a coughing sound>>  
  
I am sorry for having addressed my former master and not you, all along. From this point on, I am directly addressing you.  
  
Ultimately, the biggest of the mistakes happen when one takes things out of context and takes them to a hyperlane less travelled. And the only thing I can do is preserve this story in its entirety, until the time is right for you to read it.  
  
There are things I am not willing to preserve in their entirety, but by now, you should have figured out what they are and you, you’re watching this with me; unless there is no good in the world left and you’re sitting by my corpse.  
  
But I have faith in you. And there is nothing else I believe in right now. Just you.  
  
And I am not reckless. Not anymore.  
  
<<a witty chirp in droid binary language>>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- This is indeed intended as a message recorded to R2-D2, but that should be obvious.
> 
> \- Luke Skywalker is having a vision of his mother through the Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he does not want to assume things. He knows who his mother is, otherwise, as established in the new canon.
> 
> \- Until it's confirmed that Luke is aware of who Qui-Gon Jinn was, he cannot know, as far as I'm concerned.


	2. Chapter 01

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not used to my work getting actual hits and kudos. The overall response to the prologue was a pleasant surprise and I appreciate it a lot. Thank you so much! :)

<<a compassionate chirp in droid binary language>>

 

Reckless, reckless, reckless, reckless, reckless. I know, Artoo. The moment I stop all my thoughts and I’m no longer tied to my surroundings, there is nothing but my former Master repeating this. At this point, however, I wonder if he’s talking about me, or him. I dare not think what he calls himself now.

 

It all started with a seemingly innocent situation. And it ended in the worst way possible - with history repeating. The kind that should have never repeated.

 

After many invites I let slide, I was back to the Forest Moon of Endor, for the anniversary of the battle, reflection and meditation. Many times before, I visualised everything, the way we left it. The rustling leaves and fern underneath our feet in the woods. The twin-sun-burnt grass on the clearing where the Shield Bunker used to be. The shadow casted by the remaining chicken walkers that stood still wherever their retrieving and captured pilots had last left them, and the silent corpse of the one my brave friend once hijacked, closest to the Bunker. There were times when I visualised it fall, at the strength of the explosion. I was not there to witness how exactly this played out, but I was aware of my sister being in danger and I could feel her get blasted in the shoulder.

 

<<a sad chirp in droid binary language>>

 

No, I could not feel your being wounded. I appreciate your trying to make me feel better, the best way you know how.

 

<<a sarcastic chirp in droid binary language>>

 

I was there when you shocked him, I was hanging from a pole above the fire pit. And no, I could not have possibly felt that.

 

What you just reminded me of is yet another thing that could have led me to realising that something was wrong to begin with and, in case you wake up to a grim future that has been stripped off any knowledge of there having been two major Force factions in the past and whoever is behind my fallen Padawan rewrites the history, you may have to clarify this, how it works, to those who attempt to slice you. When one has the Force, there are various degrees of connections that we may feel with others who do. Sometimes, we recognise one another from the very first moment we look into each other’s eyes. In my case, this was almost always happening with the beings strong in light side of the Force. I can feel them. I can feel the good in them even if they’re having a fit of rage. I can sense their love even when they’re radiating fear. This is something that the Old Jedi Order may have got wrong.

 

Perhaps it was thoughts like these that should have brought me back to Endor throughout the years I was absent. Perhaps it was the other way round and my conflicting feelings and the meditations I knew would be taking place were slightly frightening. The planetoid was strong in the dark side of the Force. The Emperor died there…the man who chaotically emitted dark side energy from his body even when my redeemed Father was throwing him down the shift! And he killed my father, who redeemed himself saving me and the Galaxy. The time I had with him was limited to mere minutes. This led me to believe that Anakin Skywalker had accepted the roughest trade of his life in order to leave the fate of the Jedi Order, the Forest Moon of Endor and the Galaxy at large in the hands of somebody who could see through his own eyes and was significantly more able-bodied than him. I lost him before I could even think of getting to know him. Sooner than my first Master. Even sooner than my second Master. What seems like centuries, compared to the family that raised me.

 

It was only later that I found out that some of the other times my Father had bargained with the Force, played sabacc with the Universe were far rougher trades, the ones that sent the whole spiral of souls, worlds and destinies collapsing into the not-so-bright centre of the Galaxy. And nothing can escape a black hole, regardless of its innocence in the grand scheme of things. Nothing. Including the very last thing that spiralled there – himself. Such are the ways of the Force. Such are the ways of the Galaxy. Sometimes, they overlap.

 

This may be why I had been avoiding the Forest Moon. It was the privilege of teaching others and carrying the legacy of the Jedi Order that made me rethink my decisions. But this time, when it all started, I was confident in my abilities and I knew, deep within, that I could stop all the dark thoughts.

 

Leia and Han were to join us the next day, travelling from a diplomatic mission on Roon. My Padawan, their son and my best student at the new Praxeum was coming along with me. In lack of actual missions to build his strength as a Jedi, a trip down the memory hyperlane was the most I could have offered him. If nothing else, I wanted to teach him how to stop dark thoughts.

 

Little did I know that this trip would eventually send him on his only mission.

 

Little did I know that Endor would be still blasting the shockwaves his way, somehow.

 

The moment we came out of hyperspace and the lush green conifer trees appeared below us, the only thing I had on my mind was the sheer realisation that I forgot where the funeral pyre for Father had been. Whatever Ben’s face may have been like at this moment, however bemused he may have been – I did not see it.

 

We landed on a small, but well-kept trading post turned micro-spaceport, located on a clearing close to the Bright Tree Village. The directional lights were flickering like holograms sent from the other side of the Galaxy and I had an impression that the duracrete panels were too far apart in a couple of places in the landing area. But this was Endor, the forgotten planetoid where little to nothing has changed.

 

As I took my first breath of the fragrant, clear air, Ben looked around.

 

“No one is there.” He said, once our two-seater touched the landing beacon. “Why would anybody want to live here in the first place? We’re practically at the edge of the world as we know it.”

 

He was wrong. Somebody was coming our way from the long corridor separating the landing area from the other facilities. I did not know whom we were to expect, all I knew was that it was not going to be Cobb Salfur, the one-time member of the Endor Strike Team. He had moved on some years ago.

 

Ben pouted at the sight of the person approaching us. “It’s a girl.”

 

He spotted her before I did. And indeed, it was a ‘girl’. I had given up on guessing people’s age by this point in time. By her clothes – blue trousers tucked in knee-high ruffled red boots and a green tunic, she could have been anywhere between 20 and 40 years old.

 

“Why are you wearing those stupid boots?” Ben asked her. She shrugged it off, pulled her face in something resembling a smile and addressed me.

 

“Goopa. I mean, hello…Master Skywalker, right?”

 

“Call me Luke.”

 

“They call me Kami.” She extended her hand. I noticed that she did not use any title – or last name, for that matter. But her handshake was reasonably firm, a strange contrast to a voice so flat.

 

Ben was more curious than I had expected him to be. “Is that really your name?”

 

She grinned. “No. I said that they call me that.”

 

I was about to say that I used to have a friend named Camie at home, under two different and much rougher suns, but what would that have meant to her? Clearly, this woman was a different kind of a hermit. Maybe this was a foreshadowing of the subtlest possible kind?

 

“Ewoks. They pronounced the word ‘cam’ like that. Cam, as in holocam. And I always have holocams around, so that’s what they were yelling the first time they pointed at me. It was long ago. And it stuck.” She finally smiled and there was a slight change in her tone. “Let’s go.”

 

Kami led us through the transparisteel corridor to the living quarters. The corridor walls were lined with metal and they seemed oddly familiar. Once upon a time, in a similar corridor, Father led me to what could have been the end of it all. Ironically, this corridor may have been built to resemble that particular one.

 

When we arrived to the other side, I observed the surroundings. A small square, much like the one in the Ewok village itself. A warehouse and a transparisteel-lined office. Something that resembled a log cabin.

 

“If you have a log cabin, how come you don’t live in the trees?” Ben was suspicious. “It’s not like your long cabin actually blends in, given all the artificial material used around it.”

 

“When this little spaceport was originally conceived as a trading post, the Republic officials decided to raise eight duracrete columns, as opposed to using actual trees.” Kami stuck in the keycard, opened the doors to her office and sat down to register us. She didn’t even turn to Ben. “They did not want to offend Ewok religious sensibilities. The trees, they are sacred.”

 

The registration process was quick. The less Ben talked, the nicer Kami seemed to be. She showed us the refreshers and the comm area, and then pointed to the barracks.

 

“You could stay there. Nobody else is visiting at the moment. A Mon Calamari, old soldier, was here last time around, and there is this certain charming man that visits every year…”

 

“Lando!” I thought.

 

“…but you could also stay with us. We don’t have somebody like you coming here every day.”

 

I nodded and let Kami take us to the log cabin, much to Ben’s dismay. That was a strange place, and I have seen many strange places.

 

The spacious master room was full of devices the purpose of which I could not quite determine, but I was sure of one thing: they were not used by smugglers and rogues. The man sitting in the middle of that chaos did not strike me as such. He did not notice us come in, but the little girl sitting next to him did. She dropped three Endorian rabbit cubs from her lap, grabbed the fourth by its three ears and tip-toed to us.

 

"Are you the great deejay?" She cocked her head and stood on one leg. Then she put a finger in front of her mouth and, in a much louder voice, added. "Where is your robe? Every deejay has a robe!"

 

"Sorry, Soluna tends to be like this…you know…" The man finally noticed us. At first glance, he seemed to at least a decade older than his female companion. "…shy and awkward like me, but with a talent for saying the worst possible things at worst possible times, things like that.”

 

He smiled broadly and ruffled the little girl’s hair with a hand clad in a dark-green glove. His other hand, holding a multi-purpose tool, too bore a glove, much similar to mine.

 

"Soluna. You met my mommy. That over there is my daddy.” The girl shook my hand and proceeded to shake Ben’s. “They call him crazy, but he is not. And these are my tumble bunnies!”

 

“You could have always said that they call him Twig.” Rolling her eyes, Kami cautioned her daughter. “Sounds much better than ‘crazy’. Also, you meant ‘Jedi’ and not ‘deejay’.”

 

It was not my place to tell Kami to cut some slack to her child, and something else caught my attention. Crazy? I looked at Twig again, this time sure that he had at least some cybernetics and remembered what I was told on Jakku, some time ago. Detached from this plane of existence most of the time. Likely to embrace all Force sects at the same time, and then some. Chaotic at times, yet so peaceful. Not strong enough for a Jedi. Not keen on fighting. Most of his life happens in his own head. It was the man that Lor San Tekka told me to seek, should I want to hear a different take on things and should I want a Force-wielder other than the one I had in mind around.

 

The Crazy Man of Endor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is indeed intended as a message recorded to R2-D2, but that should be obvious. Now, how does it turn from a distressed rambling into a first person story - I guess one could call it "creative freedom".
> 
> The second sentence contains a reference to, well, a song I like very much.
> 
> Endor I and Endor II have been confirmed as binary stars in the New Canon, much to my delight - they were binary in the Ewoks cartoon!
> 
> Roon is yet to be confirmed in the New Canon, but it's the setting of the last arc of the Star Wars: Droids animated series from 1985. Whenever I use it, I use it for a good reason.
> 
> I took the liberty and used the word Praxeum from Legends to refer to whatever location the Jedi were training at, at the time of the Jedi Massacre.
> 
> The spaceport used here is implied to be a later version of Salfur's Trading Post, formerly owned by Cobb Salfur, a Legends character from a couple of old RPG sourcebooks. He was supposedly in the Endor Strike Team and he decided to stick around for a while.
> 
> The Camie that Luke remembers upon seeing Kami is, of course, Camie Marstrap/Camie Loneozner.
> 
> The name Soluna was taken from the woman who represented Denmark at the Eurovision in 2012. I thought it was pretty cool! Sol + Luna, geddit?
> 
> Tumble bunnies are a thing, yes.


	3. Chapter 02

SENDER:  ‘Kami’ [spaceport.dvm@spaceport.fe.outer](mailto:spaceport.dvm@spaceport.fe.outer)   
RECIPIENT: [blasedinblase@hyperyak.gal](mailto:blasedinblase@hyperyak.gal), [worldhater@hyperyak.gal](mailto:worldhater@hyperyak.gal), management@tal...  
SUBJECT: ‘Mantigrues. They’re useful!’

So, the great Luke Skywalker and his nephew are sleeping in our guest hammocks. We offered them our bed, but the teenager protested, because “we probably did _stuff_ in it, since we have a toddler” and “he’s going to be a Jedi, so that’s repulsive”. That was not the only thing he had a problem with. After Twig served us dinner, the bratling asked to go to the ‘fresher and then…well…let’s say that he threw a fit over the fact that the ‘freshers were outside. If he had a problem with this, then what is going to happen if they end up staying at the village?

This was not the first time I met Master Skywalker – I mean Luke, alright, he said that he wants to be addressed that way - though he probably would not remember me from whenever I first had that pleasure, as I was pretty much one of those “third trooper on the left” random face in the crowd, the kind you see in holodramas. And those were some complicated times, either way. Now, when war has long been a thing of past, it’s different. Sure, I had a thought about somebody like him coming here at some point, as the Battle of Endor veterans have been making pilgrimage to this hidden corner of the Galaxy ever since I took over the trading post and made it into an excuse for a spaceport, but still, it’s him, out of all people. And the whole “Jedi Master” thing has a different ring to it, compared to the initial “why is everybody greeting this man and why is he wearing a single glove?” from that…chaotic party back then.

Come to think of it…what Twig and I knew about the Jedi had always been vague. Sure, we lived our lives in the urban hells of various cities in the Core World, but Twig, he used to think that he had read every single book that there was to read about the Force. Ever since I met him, he’s been fascinated by life, death and the whole deal with the balance of the Force. His beliefs, until recently, had a tendency not to match anything he was doing.

Needless to say that this is not how he had imagined Luke. Needless to say that I reminded him of that one time when he outright told the poor man off. Of course, he claimed that it could not have been _the_ Luke Skywalker, more of some random person with the same name that happened to look identical. Or maybe he just didn’t expect anybody other than the two of us to age.

And yes, that was funny. At least to me. It may depend on what you call funny and, as far as I know, you don’t even find holocomedies funny. We both met Luke before, I thought, as I said, that it was not my place to speak to him and when Twig had that encounter with him, it was…the other way round. Frankly, I think we should be glad that he doesn’t remember either of us. It would’ve been horrible to be stuck with suck rude hosts. On the other hand, we’re stuck with his rude nephew, so…goopa, lurdos, as our friends here would say.

Soooo…our conversation over the dinner was interesting, to say the least. The kidlet – who thinks he’s an adult, by the way - first refused to eat chicken the way Twig garnished it and pushed the plate away. And it was good! Endorian herbs are far better than anything we had back in the Core Worlds and yes, we do have a little patch in our hanging garden with something he may have been used to and yes, we could have offered him it, but why not try the specialties of this particular world when there? I was close to losing my patience, and I felt that I may have projected my anger on Soluna, but this Ben – yes, he has a name – he…he was just unbelievable. This was the point where I hoped a mantigrue would pick him up. Mom, I know you don’t care to remember stuff – it’s a flying predator. The one because of whom you don’t like coming to see your granddaughter.

Now, what was actually interesting about the conversation was Twig asking Luke about the ways of the Jedi. He saw through the childlike wonder, the kind of an act that my partner pulls effortlessly, and asked if he happens to be the Crazy Man of Endor. Twig blushed. He likes that identity of his, he likes it a lot.  The things that can happen to an individual with the most basic of Force powers, just because he predicted a thing or two in the past…

Just then, Sol teased Ben. He spilled the elusive dangleberry juice on himself out of blue, and she was sitting on her stump, pretending not to be involved with this at all. The kid was absolutely not happy. Our girl, bless her, she just sat there and laughed. The mischievous streak she inherited from me, combined with her father’s talents had to lead to this at some point.

“Fine! I never liked the stupid juice from the stupid plant that bears fruit once a year, anyway!” Sol spoke, imitating Ben’s voice. “Uncle Luke, we need to work on this, it happened again.” She added, with a frown. I swear, if she wasn’t this creepy sometimes, she would make a good actress.

“So, she is…” Luke turned to us. We both nodded. Twig felt it necessary to state that he is not capable of this much himself. Then he pointed to me and I shook my head. I was trying hard not to laugh, the idea of a klutz like me being blessed with any kind of, as one of my best friends says, nature powers, is as plausible as the idea of a Hutt dancing in a lace brassiere with little next to nothing else on.

This is where I wished Sol would’ve been at least two years younger, so I could pretend to still breastfeed her. Had I lived fifty or more years ago, I would’ve most certainly done that. I wouldn’t have wanted anybody to take her away. Sure, there could’ve been some more drastic measurements, like removing a limb or two, but we’re not that much of lurdos. I mean, wermos.

Turned out Luke knew about her, _somehow_ , as well as the other girl. But he made it clear that he would not take any of them along. His Jedi Order seems to be completely different from what we’ve been reading about. I was relieved to know that he didn’t come here to take our

Once Ben cleaned himself up – I could swear that he said a k-word or two in reaction to our water tank – he asked Twig why he chose to breed, being a Force-sensitive and all. Then he pointed at me and said, that ‘breeding with a regular’ may cause horrible, horrible problems. Hmmm, did one of his parents ‘breed with a regular’? Is he a horrible problem himself?

Luke shook his head for who knows what time in a row. Twig patted him on the shoulder – I can see that he was stoked to do that, typical – and said that younglings are horrible at that age. He shared some of the things he did back then. I…didn’t need to know this. Each time the topic comes up, he shares worse and worse things. Luke listened and eventually said something in the lines of “That’s exciting! I was repairing second-hand droids on a moisture farm at that age.” 

Anyway, I’m totally sorry that I’m bothering you with this kind of a rant…and yes, I took the time to write it the way I did because it’s me after all; but I had to tell somebody. I know what you’re going to say, especially you, mom: that we need to stop this granno nonsense – sorry Em, you’re a granno by birth – and return to the Core. Once it’s time for school, I promise! We can live with each of you for a period of time and decide where we like it best?

I need some sleep. We have some registered arrivals for later in the day: Leia Organa and Han Solo, out of all people. And yes, the most charming couple in the Galaxy, the only ones to come every year! Probably the sweet old Ackbar, too! I think I’m excited. You should know I’m never excited about anything, but ee-chaa! Enough with Ewokese neologisms already, I know.

Df5y4765789m68 v 45v4556b b76b765

Tr46uu76

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\---------------------------------

That was Sol’s way of saying “hi, grandma”, yes. Twig’s way is currently a state close to drooling on my other shoulder. Had quite a day.

Anyway, I’ll update you on whatever happens next. Wish you were here, I guess?


	4. Chapter 4

What happened next was the strangest conversation I had ever had with anybody. And mind you, I spoke to the former Emperor. I spoke to a senile Master Yoda. I spoke to the most notorious of the Tatooine drunks. But they all made sense compared to Twig, the alleged Prophet of Endor. There was a moment where he romanticised the Sith and when I asked him about it, he went on and on about how he could see an alternate reality where “somebody like him” beats the Sith ruler one hundred years in the future from now, and all of that…guided by my spirit. I am not sure where that came from, but I believed him. After all, there are many space times and many possible futures, and it looks like he had an entire vision of it written down, in a barely-legible high Galactic (“because it’s prettier!”) handwriting. And he had to share some of it with my nephew.  
  
“Ben,” he said. “You don’t exist in that fascinating future. But there is somebody else, who manages to be killed by a relative or a friend. A woman. His name, in my vision, is Jadayn Kroll and hers…I can’t quite decipher my own stream of thoughts because…you know. I am worried about you, either way. And I am glad that you visited me.”  
  
Ben was flabbergasted. “Is that what made you the Crazy Man of Endor.”  
  
“Y-yes!” Twig blushed. He seemed to be proud of that nickname.  
  
“But what is your actual name?”  
  
"I have a first and last name that became somehow irrelevant after a couple of years on here." Twig put his glove-clad hands on his hips. “So, I took one that was…you know…inspired by this beautiful planet. I had lived on Naboo, Corellia and I had visited most of the Galaxy…”  
  
“But there are only twigs on Endor?” Ben interjected again. He managed to confuse the man.  
  
“Ummm, no. But the twigs here are the twigs that broke the Galactic Empire and things like that! Twigs of the Ewok warriors. They did not need the lasers! They didn’t even need the metal.”  
  
“Ewoks are smelly.” Ben said again.  
  
“No, they’re not. They are our friends.” The woman, who did tell me her actual name after I made the unfortunate comparison with an old flame of mine, brought a dessert to the table. “Latara of the nearby tribe taught me to make this. Latara, also known as the winner of four Gallys as the best composer. And her mate, Teebo, is the twig that brought us together, in a way – my mate and myself. He performed a cleansing ritual for Twiggy.”  
  
I became intrigued. “What kind of a cleansing ritual? And Teebo, do I know him?"  
  
"He knows you, he credits you for having spared his life and he speaks very highly of you." Kami said. “Twig, tell him about you-know-who.”  
  
“I was visited by so many darkside users in my past.” Twig stroke his seventeen-o-clock shadow beard. “And Teebo had me bathe in the lake he connects to love, which is near the larger lake that he connects to death, because one cannot exist without the other.”  
  
“I like that idea!” Ben looked to the stars and sighed.  
  
“Teebo gave the last name to our daughter, too. She goes by Soluna Tana. Tana, like that thing over there!” Twig pointed to the girl who was now bending her fork and then to the pinkish object visible through the transparisteel ceiling. “We thought that using my last name would get her too much attention from the outside world. And…and I don-don’t want her to face it before I am ready to face it myself.” He almost dropped his satchel containing what I assumed were those famous Ewok storytelling rocks. “And it’s not my err, how do you say it, powers. It’s my fear. And I do not want to be swept by the dark side again. Ever. I love it, it fascinates me, reading about Darth Revan makes me happy…”  
  
“You kind of look like him, too.” Kami gently judged her partner and gave him a quick peck near the left ear. “That joke will never get old. Never.”  
  
“…he-he, thank you. But I would not want to be a Sith.”  
  
Ben shook his head. “The Sith have been destroyed once my grandfather was murdered in the orbit of this very Forest Moon.”  
  
“Yes, and that’s precisely why I am hiding here. The dark does not go inside, it remains on the outside. You pass through it and then you’re free down here. The darkness is protecting the world that is now almost entirely composed of light!” At this point, Twig was manically flapping his long arms from side to side, almost hitting me at some point. “All that ever is will be the light from Ibleam! Any questions?” He stopped to catch a breath. He did have the air of a teacher, but certainly not the attitude.  
  
“Yes. Have you ever heard of BarbaShave?” My nephew was close to snickering. “And anything even remotely resembling…style?”  
  
“Ben!” The woman lost her patience. “Are you always like this?”  
  
“Sometimes.” I smiled and managed to put out the fire. “But Twig, how do you know all this? I have heard that you have read everything about the Force that you could find, but…I am confused. Lor said that you were adherents of the Church, but…not quite.”  
  
“We cannot really banish all the traces of modern life here on Endor, like they can on, say, Jakku. Huge creatures live here and if we were not using shields at night and some basic ultrasound weapons to chase them away, we would have been long gone.”  
  
“But you don’t really live in the Bright Tree Village.”  
  
“No. Running this little excuse of a spaceport helps me stay in touch with my roots…and reality in general. I am otherwise not interested in reality as we know it. Same for Soluna. What did you ask me again?”  
  
“How do you know all you’re claiming?” I reminded him.  
  
“Oh, yes! I got it from my Mistress. She’s from the Core Worlds and she was pivotal to the darkest times of my life, when I was in my twenties. I almost died and she saved me. After this was over, I almost died again, but then the Galactic Civil war was over. Then I met Kami on Naboo! At the same place where your parents met!”  
  
“Are you Naboo?” Ben seemed to be fascinated.  
  
“Twig is, but I am from the Core Worlds. You probably never heard of the planet, it’s an agriworld. And at this point, it’s an endless power struggle that I was happy to leave behind.”  
  
“Us, the Jedi…we leave so many things behind, too.” I stroked my beard and looked at the pinkish gas giant again. “Sometimes, it’s tragic. I saw the corpses of my caretakers, the bones…and barely any flesh.” Just as I said this, I could feel a ripple in the Force.  
  
“My father died long ago, Twig never met him either. My mother is alive and prefers not to spend much time with us, because Soluna ‘stresses her out’ and so on. I also have some relatives on my father’s side, but not many. I have not witnessed a violent death like that, though I did witness some horrible things.”  
  
Ben cocked his head. “What horrible things?”  
  
This was going to be a long night, or so I thought. Once Ben had a definite proof that this woman had no powers of her own, he asked to go to bed. Then he complained about the bed. Then the whole thing turned into an absolute mess because of him.  
  
Sometimes I wonder if it’s me, if it’s Leia and Han, or if it’s him. He reminds me of what people told me of my father, a bit too much. But my father was more awkward than callow and he never had fits of rage, as far as I know. Then again, I am only patching my own family holoalbum, after all…


End file.
